KCs Calling Several Times a Day (with Tips!)

[Frank D’Aulisa]

Hi Everyone,

Recently it seems like we have quite a few Known Callers who have been calling multiple times a day. While we are relaxing our old guidelines that usually said to give a KC 5 minutes, and it’s okay to talk to someone for 10-15 minutes now, we have had some KCs calling 3 or more times in the same day and it is important for us to be a little more firm with the subsequent calls. Especially now that many of them are listed as contacts in Five9, it’s easier than ever to pull up a KC profile when they call. If you see that they have already called today, please try to keep the call to 5 minutes or less. I won’t spell out all the math, but when we give someone 10-15 minutes a few times a day, it can really add up.

While it may be awkward to call someone out on having already called, if you already spoke to the same KC during your shift, it’s perfectly okay to start the call by acknowledging that you just spoke to them, and ask them what’s changed since that last call. These subsequent calls should be kept very brief and resolution-focused. You can validate the need to reach out from time to time, but in the same sentence, you should explain that we are not a chat line and we need to give other callers in crisis a fair chance to get through too.

“What’s changed since the last time you called?” is a great line to use for any KC, especially if you’ve spoken to them before on other shifts. This can help with getting to the point quicker since you’ve acknowledged a familiarity with their story and they do not need to start from the beginning. When it’s time to focus and start wrapping up the call, I like to say something like “I need to open up the lines for other callers in crisis, but before I go, what can you do after this call to feel better?” This can help to make the wrap-up a little less abrupt and lets callers know that we still want to address their needs before getting off the phone.

Please do your best to adhere to the guidelines when you ID a Known Caller, as giving them extra time can send mixed messages and sets the expectation that they will be able to talk as long as they want every time they call, which will only lead to more frustration when we try to wrap up in accordance with the guidelines they have been given.

Thanks,

Frank

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